Harry sat alone in the common room late one night. He was supposed to be finishing a Transfiguration essay for McGonagall, but his thoughts had wandered to his next DA lesson plan. He was thinking about Patronuses and the best way to teach the others the challenging spell. He absentmindedly bounced his wand off the Marauders Map — which he had been checking intermittently, keeping an eye on Umbridge's whereabouts — while he wondered how he could get his hands on a Boggart. Quite suddenly, out the corner of his eye, Harry noticed words appear on the parchment.
Mr Moony would like to ask the young Mr Potter to kindly stop that before he takes somebody's eye out.
"Sorry." Harry mumbled instinctively, feeling rather foolish a second later when he remembered that the map couldn't hear him. He pondered for a second what would happen if he continued to bounce his wand. Would Sirius talk to him? Would his father?
Of course, he knew it wouldn't really be Sirius or his father talking to him, just the imprint of their teenage selves they had left on the map. Deciding it was only a bit of fun, he tapped his wand to the map again.
Mr Padfoot agrees with Mr Moony. He would, however, like to point out that maps don't technically have eyes.
Harry couldn't help but smirk, he could hear Sirius saying those words to Lupin in his mind.
While he has his attention, Mr Prongs would just like to congratulate the young Mr Potter on his devastating good looks and can't help but to wonder which of his parents he got them from.
Harry leaned back in his chair, laughing as the message from his father's imprint faded from the parchment. Harry wanted desperately to hear more from the Marauders — after all, they had given Snape quite an earful two years ago — and it was the closest thing Harry could have to a conversation with Sirius at the moment, and it was only the third time in his life he had been able to make any sort of contact with his father.
Harry thought back to the first time he had seen his parents, in the Mirror of Erised, and to Dumbledore's warning. 'It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live.' Harry knew that Dumbledore had been right about the mirror, and that this situation was very similar. Sure, Harry could do what he knew he wanted to, and sit up all night prodding the map to read the Marauders witty quips. Or, he could be content with the little bit of fun he had and only misuse the map if he needed a little cheering up at any point in the future.
Deciding that the latter, although disappointing, was a much more sensible idea, Harry packed his Transfiguration notes and the map away and headed for bed. Aside from anything else, Harry knew if he continued to tap the map it would only be a matter of time before Pettigrew said something, and he didn't want to find out how that would make him feel. He changed into pyjamas and got comfy under the blankets. When he closed his eyes, he could see his fathers message as clearly as if it were still written on parchment in front of him.
Harry went fell asleep that night, contented that he had found and explanation to a concern he hadn't even realised had been bothering him for years now. His father probably wasn't half as arrogant as Snape made him out to be, he was most likely just confident and funny — and Snape was just a git.
